After The Jump Post-Mortem

After three months of planning and 1,000 e-mails between us all, the 1st After the Jump Festival happened yesterday at Studio B. Our outdoor permit being denied was kind of a blessing in disguise, being that it was 95 degrees with 100% humidity and sunshine. It was downright unbearable outside so having it indoors within the cool confines of Studio B worked out. Although, our second stage in the backroom was stuffy.

When I picked up our postcards on Tuesday, it hit me that this thing was going to happen. We had a logo, bands, venue, sponsors, a charity -- the whole she-bang. I was pretty nervous during the week, didn't want any major surprises and hoping that efforts would generate interest.

Fast-forward to Friday night, I was up until 3am finalizing the myriad of raffle prizes. Next thing I knew, it's Saturday 2pm and the Teenager Prayers are opening the show and rocking the main stage.

The thing I think of first when I think of the day is how great the bands were. We got some awesome bands taking a chance on us. We are forever indebted to them. If I wasn't a part of this thing, I would be impressed with the line-up we got. I just wished I could have devoted more time to watching. I had never seen Locksley live before and they were just having a blast of a time on stage. The same with Golem and Ra Ra Riot with their frenetic set. Major props to the Bling Kong, Jukebox the Ghost, Goes Cube and Apache Beat who were jammed into our second stage, but packed that room to capacity.

The night show had a decent showing for local boys on the verge of becoming well-known in the music scene, The Virgins. The nice surprise was Free Blood, the outfit featuring John Pugh of !!!. They're a pretty unique outfit, with John and Madeline Davy trading funky lyrics to a programmed beats. They're like the sexy Captain & Tennille.

I think we pulled it off without major catastrophes. For a bunch of bloggers, we were able to give New Yorkers a different kind of festival, and it was all towards a good cause.

On personal note, I want  to give the up-most thanks to the labels, promotional firms, studios and CMJ in donating CD, DVDs, books and passes for the raffle. We able to raise a nice hunk of cash to give to Donors Choose and to music education in New York City. Of course, the people at Studio B bent over backwards to accommodate us. Obviously, the sponsors like Concert.TV, Indaba, MetroMix and Cellfish gave us the means to make this thing happen

We'll have a bunch of photos and videos from the day in the weeks to come. For now, I'm going to go back to doing nothing and relaxing. Tomorrow, I get back to blogging about music. Woo hoo!

P.S.- Last piece of business, whoever has the raffle number ending in 093, you are a winner of a prize pack. If you can produce the ticket, contact me and I'll find a way to get you your loot.